1. Field of the Invention
This application is based on Japanese Patent application No. 2011-188214 filed in Japan Patent Office on Aug. 31, 2011, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. The present invention relates to a body front structure for an automobile, and more particularly, to a body front structure for an automobile which prevents infiltration of noise into a cowl.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, various body front structures for automobiles have been proposed in order to maintain quiet conditions in a vehicle interior by reducing acoustic pressure in corner sections of an engine compartment. For example, in a body front structure for an automobile which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H04-349051, a dash panel 52 is provided between a cabin 51 and an engine compartment 53 as shown in FIG. 16, and penetration into the cabin 51 of noise produced in the engine compartment 53 is shielded by the dash panel 52. The dash panel 52 is provided with a dash lower panel 54 and a dash upper panel 55, and a dash sound absorbing material 56 is installed on the dash lower panel 54. The upper surface of the engine compartment 53 is covered by an openable and closable bonnet panel 57, and a rear end of the bonnet panel 57 abuts against packing 58. A bonnet sound absorbing material 59 is provided on the inner surface of the bonnet panel 57. Moreover, a cowl side sound absorbing section 60 which diagonally rises up forwards is provided in an integrated manner on the upper portion of the dash sound absorbing material 56, and a sound insulating space 62 is formed between the cowl side sound absorbing section 60 and a cowl box 61.
In the conventional body front structure for an automobile shown in FIG. 16, the upper edge portion of the cowl side sound absorbing section 60 abuts against the bonnet sound absorbing material 59, and therefore it is possible to reduce the acoustic pressure at the corner sections in the engine compartment 53 by means of this cowl side sound absorbing section 60 and a sound insulating space 62 and infiltration of noise into the cabin 51 can be prevented, thus maintaining quiet conditions therein.
However, in a conventional body front structure for an automobile as described above, a sound insulating space 62 is formed to the front side of the packing 58 at the rear end of the bonnet panel 57, and hence there is a problem in that the upper portion of the engine compartment is narrowed accordingly, and furthermore, since a dual seal structure is adopted in which the packing 58 and the upper end portion of the cowl side sound absorbing section 60 abut against the inner surface of the bonnet panel 57, then this structure is wasteful.
A further known conventional example of a body front structure for an automobile is one in which a sealing member is provided on the cowl grille so as to span between the left and right fenders.
On the other hand, although it is necessary to prevent infiltration of noise from the engine compartment into the cabin, in addition to this it is also possible to seek to protect pedestrians by enlarging the collision stroke between the bonnet and members of the body therebelow, in the event of a collision with a pedestrian. However, the prior art described above does not provide a structure which achieves sufficient protection of pedestrians in this way.